Black Lives Matter. How will the education of future teachers and future school administrators change school cultures?

Thank you for putting this all together, educators need to be deeply appreciative when those thinking deeply about our issues publish in open spaces. (In my first interview for the PhD program at Michigan State I said, “I think we’re writing the wrong things in the wrong publications for the wrong people.”)

I believe that every school/college of education has failed us. I remember teaching future students about UDL having to begin with school and classroom culture, while knowing that the culture of the College of Education and the University were emphasizing everything traditional. “The hidden curriculum is the only curriculum “ Dr. Lynn Fendler reminded us, and despite everything we said we were graduating teachers trained in a deeply racist system.

I spoke to a group of education Deans 4 years ago at the US Department of Education, asking them to help educate future teachers and future administrators in ways that might create the kind of educators who could join in the radical cultural changes we were trying to make in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. We heard many promises — I’m not sure we generated much actual change.

A few posts on the same issues…

“Reforming Police. Reforming Schools” by Ira David Socol https://link.medium.com/qToIfmTMh7

“Worlds Collide: White Cops on Black Streets and Challenging Curriculum” by Ira David Socol https://link.medium.com/hlE3Uj9d56

“Education is the most political thing we do, it is the fight for our future” by Ira David Socol https://link.medium.com/qBC8rxaJw7

“George Floyd, Christian Cooper, and 401 years of American Racism” by Ira David Socol https://link.medium.com/LRs44iFxX6

• Ira Socol